Major Morrow
We all felt the shuttle shudder for a moment as the ship attached itself to the Indomitable Crusade. Those that weren’t already standing stood up as the ship went from Terran standard to Yalayan standard atmosphere. Not that there was enough of a difference for either the Indomitable Crusade or our shuttle to be damaged by not doing this, but like the old Terran saying goes, ‘better safe than sorry’. The airlock went through its cycling process before the inner door was promptly kicked open by one of my men. We were immediately buffeted by the loud music that Sergeant Grays was pumping into the ship before our mechs automatically filtered out the excess noise. Despite this, I could hear some of my men singing along to the vocals of some of the tracks. So long as they didn’t interfere with radio chatter, I let them do what they wanted.
There were a few of those praying mantis looking xenos near the airlock. They looked over to where twenty armed and angry Terrans were pouring out of the airlock. Without fail, they all went for their service pistols, and like I had warned in my previous message, we gunned them down with extreme prejudice. Six bolter rounds and six confirmed kills later, we had cleared the airlock and the adjoining hallways. “Clear!” I shouted as I turned towards the preplanned route to the bridge.
“Be advised, we now have access to the camera system and are looking at your route. You’re clear so far. Also, that breach is going in the highlight reel!” I heard Sergeant Grays say through the radio.
“Copy that Sergeant, keep us posted about any ambushes that we can avoid.” I replied as we started stomping along our predetermined path, occasionally relieving some poor xeno of the burden that was their head.
“Wilco Major, it’s an honor to see you work,” the sergeant replied, followed by an impressive whistle as we acted like surgeons performing our craft. You mess with Terra or her people, this is what you get.
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High Commander Tussus
I watched the security feeds in absolute horror as my crew was systematically slaughtered by the Terrans all to the beat of their terrifying music. I was about to order my security officer to get a counter boarding operation started, to see that they were already screaming those same orders to their subordinates, desperately trying to be heard over the droning beat of the music.
Oh ancestors, what are we going to do? I thought after watching the Terrans blow through another seven crewmembers. Scuttling the ship would take the Terrans down and destroy any sensitive information along with it. Some back corner of my mind said. No! I shook my head to try and rid myself of that thought. I will not be dying today! And besides, that would be a last resort of all last resorts. Instead, I pulled up a map of the ship. The Terrans had breached relatively close to the bridge, but that left us with options for either delaying their advances or stopping them altogether. I waved over my security officer, who came over quickly. “We need to set up ambushes at these sites,” I shouted over the music, pointing to several spots on the map.
They nodded and shouted back to me, “At your command, High Commander.” Space battles might be where I excelled, but this was still my ship, and if I had my way, I would drive these vermin from it.
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Major Morrow
We were making good time through the ship. But to say that we were without problems would be a lie. Due to the shifty nature of these bug looking bastards, we had to take our time and clear each individual door and room as we went along, otherwise there was a possibility of being ambushed and killed before we could fulfil our mission.
We were taking some wins, however. Not every Yalayan we came across was so fanatical that they couldn’t be coerced into surrendering. Hell, we even managed to make it into the double digits of POW’s. But most didn’t want to be taken alive.
I had just breached one of the rooms only to find a single Yalayan standing in the middle of the room, plasma pistol near the door, trembling something fierce as they held their hands above their head. “Please don’t shoot!” they pleaded. Before I could respond, my mech was brained by another Yalayan holding a fire extinguisher just outside of my vision. I stumbled forward before finally falling to the ground. As I rolled to face my aggressors, they both pulled out knives from pouches on their abdomen, jumped on me, and started wildly slashing at my mech.
“Shit!” I shouted as I was ganged up on. Luckily, this mech was not only designed to be used in war, it was also capable of doing hand to hand combat as effectively as any regular marine is. I grabbed the knife hand of the one on my left and squeezed until I could hear its carapace start to crack and a scream sounded from its mandibles. A blade shot from my wrist like that one character from that one videogame franchise that really should have stopped a century ago. I rapidly inserted the knife into its chest area until it wouldn’t move anymore, covering the mech in the sickly green blood of their kind. I was going to turn to my second aggressor when its head was suddenly turned to mist by a single shot from one of my squad mate’s bolter.
“You broke yet sir?” he asked, offering me his hand.
“Not in a million years,” I responded as I checked the diagnostic system of the mech. Only a few minor breaches in the outer layer, nothing that would take me out of the fight just yet. I reached up and took his hand as he pulled me up from my prone position. “Thanks for the assist,” I said, putting the knife back where it came from.
“Just looking out for my own sir,” he replied.
I nodded at that. We both finished clearing the room and then went onto the next one. We did this for another five minutes or so before we came across a sealed bulkhead. I motioned over to our hard breacher to put some charges on it when I heard my radio crackle to life once again.
“Be advised, there is a large contingent of about forty hostiles on the other side of that bulkhead. They are all armed with heavy weaponry straight from the armory,” came the voice of the Sergeant.
I stopped just short of the bulkhead, scanning the area warily for any traps on this side of the bulkhead. “Copy that, is there any way around?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, not, unless you want to go twenty minutes out of your way,” he replied.
“Shit! Any suggestions?” I asked to both him and my team.
“A smart flashbang could be useful here. Throw it up into the vents and maneuver it to the hallway just outside of the bulkhead while we breach it,” came the suggestion from one of my men.
“Damn good idea!” I shouted as I pulled a smart flashbang out of a compartment on my mech. “Sergeant, if you can open the vent access on both sides of the bulkhead, we can get these xenos to God with same day shipping.” Two men started to put breaching charges onto the bulkhead to blow it open.
“You got it Major, vent access in three, two, one.” And with that, the vent overhead slid open as I chucked the smart flashbang into the vent. It’s miniature thrusters propelling it beyond our sight and down the vent system towards the enemy. It wasn’t long before we heard a loud bang on the other side, followed rather quickly by the explosive of the breaching charges that were placed on the bulkhead, blowing it from its tracks and into two Yalayans, crushing them under the weight of it. It didn’t take long for us to dispatch the remaining thirty-eight hostiles and clear the rest of the hallway. Only three more bulkheads to go.